Bridal designer Andrea Hawkes didn’t come from an entrepreneurial family – her father was a teacher and her mother was a civil servant. But for as long as she can remember, she knew she would run her own design business one day.
Fast-forward to 2013, and her parents were more than a little concerned when she told them she was launching her own brand. “They were worried about how I was going to pay my mortgage,” says Hawkes. “But at some point, you have to take the leap.”
Hawkes does however credit her mum and the other women in her family for passing down the creative gene. “They’re all really good at sewing. I absorbed that from a young age.”
At 16, she went to college to learn the basic skills of making something – from how to use a needle and thread to operating a sewing machine. After completing a fashion degree at university, she secured an internship at London fashion week. But she quickly ruled out mainstream fashion for something more bespoke – bridalwear.
“Bridal is completely about the client and I didn’t necessarily feel that from fashion. Also, it’s a friendly, happy industry because people are getting married. I knew quite quickly that this was what I wanted to do.”
Her first collection was small, six or seven dresses that she showed to clients in the corner of an architect’s studio, where she rented space. She was supported by her husband, Dan Ayres, who helped with the administrative and legal side of setting up a business, and her brother, Neil, who handled the branding and graphic design. Within a year, they moved into a shop in Islington which felt “way beyond our means”. One decade on and that’s still where Andrea Hawkes Bridal calls home. The team now numbers 11 people, including Ayres as production manager.
Hawkes is known for her minimalist, contemporary designs that make use of natural silk fabrics, French lace, statement sleeves and delicate embellishments. She’s dressed celebrities including the American actor Elizabeth Lail (known for her role as Guinevere Beck in Netflix’s thriller You) and British actor Louisa Lytton (who plays Ruby Allen in EastEnders). Much of her inspiration comes from seeing clients. “It’s really important for me to keep seeing brides so I don’t feel detached from the business. I like to be part of the fittings. And I still do all of the design specifications for every single dress.”
During Covid-19, with weddings in the UK paused and retailers forced to close, Hawkes and the team had to embrace technology more than they ever had before. Paperwork was signed remotely using Adobe Acrobat, fittings were done on video calls, and Adobe Photoshop and design tools used to visualise designs and create specifications.
“It kickstarted us working more efficiently as a business,” says Hawkes. “We used to print everything out and send it off to be signed, and then sent back. It was hard to keep track of. With all of the postponements during Covid we realised we needed everything in writing, and we needed it quickly – this is where Acrobat came in.”
While the company’s audience is still predominantly UK-based, the ability to work remotely has opened up other parts of the world. “There are countries that like our aesthetic, such as Denmark, Germany, Dubai and the US,” she says. “Since the pandemic, we have customers all over the place. We’ve learned we can make something remotely extremely successfully. And we’re continuing to learn new ways of doing things.”
In the future, she hopes to integrate technology more into in-person appointments too. “I want to use it as part of the experience of someone coming in and using the iPad to do some loose sketches together,” she says. “At the moment, I do all of the drawings by hand. But being able to use digital images of fabrics, changing embellishments quickly, and drawing in front of clients would be great.”
After 10 years of running her own business, Hawkes says her biggest lesson has been to accept when she needs help from others. “It was clear quite quickly when we opened the shop that I was going to need help with the business side. That’s not my strength. So Dan runs everything behind the scenes of the company.”
Her advice to other creative people with a business idea would be: “Don’t give up on your dream of doing something. Focus on what you’re good at and ask for help with the other things. You can’t do everything by yourself.
“It’s been really exciting to build a brand and a team from nothing,” she says. “And seeing happy clients. I don’t take my eyes off that. That’s the basis of it all.”
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